On Saturday Sept. 12th,
2009 I had the privilege of speaking at
the Green Tree Public Library in
Pittsburgh, PA (my hometown) to the Pgh.
Writers Project. My 2-hour lecture
presented an overview of how I researched
materials for my book on Fredericksburg's
historical churches and ten tips for
conducting effective research and applying
it to any genre. The transcripts of my
lecture are below:

INTRODUCTIONBefore I begin, I want to
thank Pilar and your group for the
gracious invitation to speak here today.
In my work I get to lecture at
universities and museums fairly often, and
I cover a variety of history-related
topics, but it's a real treat when I get
to stand to a room full of my peers and
talk specifically about our craft. Before
I was a historian, I was first and
foremost, a writer.

Today is also a homecoming
of sorts for me. I was born and raised
just down the street from here on Parkedge
Road. My parents still live there. Even
today I distinctly remember my mother
taking me to the original Green Tree
Library, which was located in the old
Borough Building over where Boston Market
is located and also to the second facility
which was on the same lot. I checked out
Bruce Catton's "This Hallowed Ground" so
many times the librarian eventually told
me I couldn't renew it.

This building we are in
now used to be part of Manilla School and
I went to 4th thru 6th grade here, the
last class to do so. My 6th grade history
teacher Mr. Good first ignited my interest
in American history and I actually made my
first trip to Gettysburg that year. It was
an event that would change the course of
my life both personally and
professionally.

For our discussion today I
am going to present two parts. The first
will breakdown how I do what I do. These
are my steps for historical research and
writing. The second will hopefully provide
some tips that you can apply in your own
work, no matter what genre you write. I'll
also be happy to answer any questions you
have at the end.

Of course as a historian,
research is the backbone and the
foundation of everything I do. And I
happened to pick two specialties over the
course of my career that absolutely
demands accuracy. My first big break came
with Baseball-Almanac where I went on to
write close to 400 pieces over the course
of 6 years. In many cases these were very
large projects where I would spend months
researching and recapping every World
Series or every All-Star Game from the
beginning up to that point. In all I
penned 5 of their major archive sections
that are still used online to this
day.

The work was challenging,
and tedious, and for a baseball fanatic
like me, awesome. That said, no matter how
hard we tried there were always readers
out there who had forgotten more about
baseball than we would ever know. We
called these people the "trekees" (after
the Star Trek enthusiasts) and many had
either attended these games, or memorized
the box scores, because they would find
the most minuscule errors and blast us for
them. In baseball history, stats and
source material must always be validated.
Luckily as an almanac we were always able
to update our stuff.

What this taught me is
that our readers in many cases can be our
best editors and we must take the time to
listen to them. It can be a humbling
experience, but it ultimately makes our
work better.

The same goes for my work
on the Civil War. People's ancestors who
fought in the conflict sometimes have
knowledge that surpasses that of the
National Park Service or heritage
organizations because they lived it
firsthand and passed those stories down
through the years in their diaries and
letters home.

As a historian I consider
myself in a way a custodian of the
legacies of those who came before us. It's
a tremendous privilege and responsibility,
so I always make accurate research a top
priority. In addition, our findings may
become reference for a future study and
bad reference breeds bad history.

THE PROCESSSo let's talk specifically
about my process. I'd like to briefly take
you through the procedure I used for one
of my recent books. This one is about
Fredericksburg's historic churches. I'll
begin by reading you the cover
copy:

"Houses of the Holy"
recalls stories of rebellion, racism and
reconstruction as experienced by
Secessionists, Unionists

and the African American
population in Fredericksburg's landmark
churches during the Civil War and
Reconstruction eras. Using a wide variety
of materials compiled from the local
National Park archives, author Michael
Aubrecht presents multiple perspectives
from local believers and nonbelievers who
witnessed the country's "Great Divide."
Learn about the importance of faith in
Fredericksburg through the recollections
of local clergy such as Reverend Tucker
Lacy; excerpts from slave narratives as
recorded by Joseph F. Walker; impressions
of military commanders such as Robert E.
Lee and "Stonewall" Jackson; and stories
of the conflict over African American
churches.

When The History Press
first approached me to publish a regional
title I had no intention of ever writing
one. That said, after one of their
Commissioning Editors 'pitched' me, I
spent a little time talking to my friends
up at the National Park Service and we
collectively decided that a study of our
area's landmark churches during the Civil
War and Reconstruction period was a
perfect subject matter. Why? Because it
had never been done before. My commitment
therefore had to be true as I was the
first to tackle a collective history on
this subject.

We also used the same
approach with my upcoming book on
Confederate Encampments of Spotsylvania
County. That book is titled "Campfires at
the Crossroads" and is also a completely
original study. Both of these books
required intense research and I'm pretty
proud of the finished products.

For what I write about,
the best source of both primary and some
secondary reference is of course the
National Park's archives as they are an
invaluable resource for reference,
photography, and illustration files. I am
very blessed to live in a place as
historic as Fredericksburg where a large
collection like that is located. Even
better, the NPS has spent a great deal of
time modernizing their library and here is
where it really pays to be a historian in
the 21st century.

DEFINING DATAI say this as their entire
1000-page catalog has been converted into
a massive, searchable database. Each item
in their bound volumes has a series of
keyword designators and a short abstract
telling you what the item includes. By
typing in a keyword, such as "churches" it
provides the researcher with a PDF (Adobe
Acrobat doc.) with all of the volumes on
file and associated info featuring the
word "churches."

Now what this enabled me
to do in mere minutes is identify 44
volumes that held potentially usable
reference material and sources. It would
take months to do that by hand. Each item
with the word "churches" in it was listed
by vol. number, section number, page and
chapter number, and a brief description
outlined the major topics.

I then told the NPS guys
which ones I needed and they pulled them
for me to browse. I spent days up at their
offices, copying and photocopying page -
after page - after page of documents and
memoirs, recollections, and other
unpublished sources. The pile that I
walked away with was staggering.

However, identifying what
is available and drilling that information
down is only step one. This points you to
the reference. But how do you manage it -
especially when you end up with everything
from old newspaper clippings and diary
pages - to official reports and meeting
minutes?

The answer is you make
your own card-catalog. Organization is a
top-priority. For "Houses of the Holy"
each church had its own folder with a
contents and index.

As I gathered more and
more materials, they all went into the
folders. By the time I was done I had a
stack of folders bursting at the seams
with reference.

This kept everything
categorized and organized for me as I
wrote each church's section separately. It
also helped when it came time to credit
people and I referred to these sources for
the bibliography.

What is extra nice is that
I now have an extensive collection of
pre-sorted materials that I can refer to
again and again for future projects. So
through this one book, I now have sources
for a dozen more pieces. I would like to
add that I simultaneously collected the
data on Spotsylvania's churches and I am
already prepared to draft a companion
volume when the time comes. So it helped
me to think ahead, beyond the immediate
project.

In addition to visiting
the archives, I also made a point to
personally contact and meet with
representatives from each of the churches.
All of them were very gracious and I had
the opportunity to sit down with some of
these congregation members who also
provided me with copies of information. I
did this to get the perspectives and
insights from living, breathing, people.

The stories they shared
with me and the personal items they
allowed me to copy went beyond the scope
of the archived materials. It made the
piece more balanced and in some cases they
either validated or contradicted what I
had already written. This is where
cross-checking data became crucial and the
use of multiple sources became absolutely
necessary.

I was also able to find
some decent sources online, although I
approached them carefully. The Internet of
course has opened up a whole new world to
historians (and writers), but it must
always be examined with a critical eye.
I'll discuss that in more detail
later.

So once again research is
THE most important aspect of my process.
The writing itself is a wasted effort if I
don't have a firm foundation of facts.
It's the cornerstone of my work and
"Houses of the Holy" is the fruit of that
labor.

With a clear focus and the
assistance of others, I was able to
discover a great story and in turn share
it with my readers. The focus of this book
was rooted in a much broader perspective
and I intentionally entered this unique
piece knowing that:

1. I knew very little
ahead of time about the subject.
2. I had to compose something that would
be both original and inclusive.
3. I had to get feedback and fact checks
from the experts.

And all of that depended
on the quality of my research.

I'd like to confess that I
didn't succeed in meeting those goals
initially. This book went through 2 major
rewrites after completing the manuscript
due to the critical feedback that I got
from my friends at the National Park
Service.

In some places they felt I
had been too soft on the controversial
issues of race relations and secession, so
I went back and spent 2 months tweaking
the book. I deleted entire sections and
also added new ones. It created more work,
but it also made the book so much better.
It came off the press a more well-rounded
and in turn well-respected piece.

It forced me to grow as a
historian, as a researcher, and ultimately
as a writer. Today this book is nearing
its second printing and people have really
responded to it well. The History Press
was so pleased they signed me to do that
camp book as part of their "American
Chronicles Series."

None of that would have
been possible if I had neglected my
research.

So that's just a glimpse
into how I do what I do. Let's look at
what we can do. What are some tips for
research in writing?